In 2007, Sister Christian Molidor captured the image above: A family left homeless by the December 2004 tsunami settles in to a new house, thanks to CNEWA’s generous donors. To discover more ways to help families in need in India today, check out our giving page. (photo: Christian Molidor, R.S.M.)

South African President Nelson Mandela assists Pope John Paul II at the Johannesburg International Airport in 1995, at the start of the pope’s first official visit to South Africa. Mandela, who led the struggle to end the country’s apartheid regime, died on 5 December at age 95 at his home in Johannesburg. (photo: CNS/Patrick De Noirmont, Reuters)

Pope extends condolences to the family of Nelson Mandela(VIS) Pope Francis sent a telegram of condolence to Jacob Zuma, president of South Africa, on the death of Nobel Peace Prize winner Nelson Mandela yesterday. In the text, the Pope extended his condolences to the Mandela family, members of government and all South Africans. Pope Francis recalled: “the steadfast commitment shown by Nelson Mandela in promoting the human dignity of all the nation’s citizens and in forging a new South Africa built on the firm foundations of non-violence, reconciliation, and truth…”

UNHCR chief: Pope Francis is symbol of hope(Vatican Radio) Today, Pope Francis received in audience the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, António Manuel de Oliveira Guterres. As high commissioner, Mr. Guterres heads one of the world’s largest humanitarian organizations, with more than 7,000 staff working in 126 countries providing protection and assistance to millions of refugees, returnees, internally displaced people and stateless persons. Tracey McClure spoke with the former Portuguese prime minister following his meeting with Pope Francis, and he had this to say: “Since ever, the Catholic Church has been absolutely impeccable in putting in the agenda the need to respect the rights of refugees, the rights of migrants, the need for societies to be tolerant, for societies to respect diversity — and this has been a constant line of advocacy for the Catholic Church. But I think Pope Francis gave a new dimension to this…”

‘Assad’s nun’ becomes unlikely power broker in Syrian civil war(National Post) Amid Syria’s ferocious civil war, a nun has emerged as an unlikely power broker and figure of controversy. Mother Superior Agnes-Mariam of the Cross has thrust herself into the role of go-between and publicist — arranging ceasefires, organizing pro-government media trips and conducting speaking tours as perhaps the country’s most prominent critic of the uprising against President Bashar al Assad. She is so despised by the opposition even acts of seeming good will are criticized, such as arranging a rare truce that allowed thousands to leave a blockaded town. The nun insists she is not an Assad propagandist, describing his family’s decades-long rule as a “tumor,” but she saves her harshest criticism for the rebels…

U.S. bishops speak against illegal demolitions in Jerusalem(Fides) United States bishops have written in protest of the demolition of a house owned by the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem in late October. In a 26 November letter to Israeli ambassador Ron Dermer, Bishop Richard E. Pates, speaking on behalf of the U.S.C.C.B., asked the diplomat to convey to the Israeli government their “strong objections.” In early November, Fouad Twal, the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, had visited the site of the demolition and described the occurrence as “an act of vandalism that violates international law…”

Palestinian activism evolves in Prawer protests(Al Monitor) Nonpartisan Palestinian youths have taken the lead in nationwide protests against Israel’s Prawer Plan — which seeks to move a sizable population of Negev Bedouin from its land and resettle it elsewhere — breaking away from traditional Palestinian political forces. These protests raise a number of questions about the organizational framework and courses of action currently available to Palestinians. These include the identity of the factions that could actually take the lead on the Palestinian arena, whether the situation is expected to escalate to a third intifada and how coordination was achieved over such a multifaceted issue…

Government supporters stage counterprotest in Ukraine(New York Times) Pro-government demonstrators deployed a new tactic on Friday to counter protests in favor of European integration, marching through the capital, Kiev, to oppose homosexuality, which they said would accompany a greater European Union role in Ukrainian affairs. Carrying religious icons and singing hymns, the group of about a thousand Orthodox Christian supporters of President Viktor F. Yanukovich filed out of a monastery and marched to a city park. Marchers said they favored allegiance with Russia rather than Europe because Russia more closely matches the cultural and religious heritage of Ukraine, once part of the Soviet Union. The protesters set off from the Kiev Pechersk Lavra, a monastery controlled by the Moscow Patriarchate, which is subordinate to the Russian Orthodox Church and is one of three denominations of Eastern Orthodoxy in Ukraine. The Kievan Patriarchate of Ukraine, in contrast, has supported the pro-European demonstrators and has allowed many to sleep in churches…

In 2004 image, two women — a Muslim and a Catholic sister — take notes during class at Bethlehem University. The Catholic school serves both Christians and Muslims and promotes interreligious understanding. (photo: Steve Sabella)

Over the next couple weeks, the “little town of Bethlehem” will figure prominently in songs and liturgies. But several years ago, we visited a leading university there, which revealed a different aspect of the town:

Founded by the Holy See and the De La Salle Christian Brothers, the university serves Christians and Muslims alike and offers degrees in such fields as arts and sciences, business administration, nursing, education, social work, hotel management and tourism.

It does so against the tense political backdrop of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, whose flare-ups often have forced the university to suspend operations. While the current intifada has not produced closings on the scale seen from 1987 to 1990, it has had a tremendous impact on the school.

“The past few years have been a struggle,” says Brother Vincent Malham, F.S.C., Bethlehem University’s President and Vice Chancellor since 1997.

“The closures and curfews and checkpoints make it difficult for our students and staff to get here.”

And the devastation of the Palestinian economy has slashed the availability of jobs. “In Bethlehem, once a relatively affluent Palestinian city, unemployment is at least 50 percent,” Brother Vincent says.

Even so, the university continues to grow in numbers and in academic offerings, Brother Vincent adds. As such, Bethlehem University must be seen as one of the great successes of recent Palestinian history.

Bethlehem University’s origins date to Pope Paul VI’s 1964 visit to the Holy Land. He believed Palestinians would be well-served by a university and that such an institution also would help stem Christian Palestinian emigration. The pope asked the De La Salle Christian Brothers to run the project.

It was a natural choice: In 1680, John Baptist de la Salle founded his congregation to educate the poor, who typically did not have access to education. (Today, about 7,000 brothers and their colleagues run schools in more than 80 countries.)

At first, the university occupied a few rooms in a Bethlehem elementary and secondary school for boys.

“We were pioneers, but we had great teachers who were creative,” says Dr. Jacqueline Sfeir, a student in the 1973 inaugural class and now a professor of education at Bethlehem University.

Protesters receive medical assistance in St. Michael’s Orthodox Cathedral in Kiev, Ukraine, on 1 December. The head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church has condemned police violence against “peaceful demonstrations” after President Viktor Yanukovich’s decision not to seek closer ties with the European Union. (photo: CNS/Stoyan Nenov, Reuters)

Kiev protesters see potent ally under a spire(New York Times) After riot police officers stormed Independence Square here early Saturday, spraying tear gas, throwing stun grenades and swinging truncheons, dozens of young protesters ran, terrified, scattering up the streets. It was after 4:30 a.m., the air cold, the sky black. As they got their bearings, the half-lit bell tower of St. Michael’s Golden-Domed Monastery beckoned. Inside, the fleeing demonstrators found more than warmth and safety. They had arrived in a bastion of the Kievan Patriarchate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, where they were welcomed not only on a humanitarian basis but because the church, driven by its own historical tensions with Moscow, is actively supporting their uprising. It strongly favors European integration to enable Ukraine to break free from Russia’s grip, and has joined the calls to oust the Ukrainian government…

Torched Syrian camp in Lebanon illustrates tension between refugees, residents(Washington Post) The wood-framed tents on this muddy field in the Bekaa Valley have burned to ground, leaving only remnants of the lives of the Syrian refugees and migrant workers who occupied them: shoes, scattered tomatoes, a pink plastic comb and metal latrines provided by the United Nations High Commission on Refugees. Local villagers torched the tents amid allegations that the some residents of the camp had sexually molested a mentally disabled young man. The ousted Syrians say that claim was fabricated at the behest of a new landowner who wanted to evict them from the site. Because of political and sectarian sensitivities, Lebanon did not establish its first official refugee transit camp until last month. That camp has 70 tents. The vast majority of those fleeing the violence have found themselves dependent on private landowners for shelter…

Conflicting statements on the issue of the Maalula sisters(Fides) After the occupation of Maaloula by rebel militias, government sources have written that rebels had kidnapped nuns and orphans present in the monastery. On Wednesday, the pro-government daily newspaper Al Watan claimed that the kidnappers were planning to use the abducted nuns as human shields. On the opposite side, rebel sources widely mentioned by Al Arabiya television channel released the version that snipers loyal to the regime had tried to block attempts to evacuate the nuns to ensure their safety…

Egypt’s Coptic pope: Participation in referendum ‘a duty’(World Bulletin) Coptic Orthodox Pope Tawadros II has urged Egyptians to vote in an upcoming referendum on Egypt’s amended constitution, describing it as a duty. “Participation in the referendum is a must,” Pope Tawadros said during his weekly sermon at Cairo’s Coptic Orthodox Cathedral of St. Mark on Wednesday. The referendum represents a central pillar of an army-imposed roadmap for political transition, unveiled by the military in the wake of Muhammad Morsi’s 3 July ouster…

Pope seeks meeting with man who murdered a nun(Times of India) Pope Francis has expressed his desire to meet Samundar Singh, a man who brutally murdered Sister Rani Maria, a Catholic nun, in broad daylight while travelling on a bus in Madhya Pradesh 18 years ago. She was stabbed 54 times before being dragged out of the bus and left to die on the roadside in front for several passengers. The pope was moved after viewing “The Heart of a Murderer,” a documentary film about the event and how forgiveness has changed Mr. Singh…

In this image from 2004, a man displays a three-bar cross — commonly used by Greek Catholic and Orthodox Christians in the Slavic churches — before police during a protest in Kiev. (photo: Petro Didula)

We reported in 2005 on the intersection of religion and politics in the public square during that historic standoff and the complicated history behind the protests in Ukraine, all growing out of the election that pitted reformer Viktor Yuschenko against Prime Minister Viktor Yankyovych:

Though both Mr. Yuschenko and Mr. Yanukovych are Orthodox, they drew their support from different confessional groups. Ukraine’s Catholic community, which accounts for about 13 percent of the country’s 48 million people (5 million Greek Catholics and 1 million Latin, or Roman, Catholics), supported Mr. Yuschenko and his pro-Western tilt. Meanwhile, the largest Orthodox community — the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP), which accounts for about 25 percent of the population — supported Mr. Yanukovych, an advocate for close ties to Russia. The two Orthodox communities independent of Moscow — the larger Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Kiev Patriarchate (UOC-KP) and the smaller Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church — supported Mr. Yuschenko’s presidential bid.

“The ecclesiastical authorities are not supposed to take a stand in this crisis,” Father Oleksandre Hoursky told the International Herald Tribune. But then, like many clergy involved, he went on to ignore his own advice. “The church supports good against evil, the protection of human rights and the end of any injustices, and the state abuse of power,” the Roman Catholic priest continued.

Even Lubomyr Cardinal Husar, who heads the country’s Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, weighed in on the crisis. “At the root of the crisis remains an immoral regime,” he said, “that has deprived Ukrainian people of their legitimate rights and dignity.”

In this September photo, Syrian refugee Fatima Said poses for a photo in her room in Kilis, Turkey. Said shares the room in the Turkish border town with her daughter and grandsons. (photo: CNS/Michael Swan, The Catholic Register)

Syrian refugees in Istanbul sent from pillar to post(Al Monitor) In mid-September, a Turkish human rights organization issued a report estimating the number of Syrian refugees in Istanbul at 100,000, though it is claimed to be “well over 200,000” today. Now, as winter sets in, these displaced families struggle to find work and shelter…

Chaldean Church urges political participation among Iraqi Christians(Fides) The Patriarchate of Babylon of the Chaldeans has issued an invitation to its faithful to register to vote in the upcoming legislative elections, scheduled for 30 April. “Participation in the parliamentary elections,” reads the statement, “is a national and moral responsibility.” The patriarchate also encouraged Christians to consider candidacy…

Pope calls for prayer for nuns kidnapped in Syria(Vatican Radio) At the end of his general audience on Wednesday, Pope Francis called on everyone to pray for a group of nuns taken by force from the Greek Orthodox Monastery of Saint Tekla in the ancient Christian town of Maaloula in Syria. “Let us pray for these sisters, and for all those who have been kidnapped on account of the ongoing conflict. Let us continue to pray and to work for peace…”

Greek Orthodox patriarch urges release of Maaloula sisters(International Business Times) Syria’s Greek Orthodox patriarch has urged Syrian rebels to release a group of nuns who taken hostage from a convent in the predominantly Christian town of Maaloula. “We appeal to the seed of conscience that God planted in all humans, including the kidnappers, to release our sisters safely,” Patriarch Youhanna X said. The church leader reported that orphans who were in the foster care of the sisters had also been taken hostage…

Ukraine protests persist as bid to oust government fails(New York Times) Refusing to grant a central demand of protesters who have laid siege to public buildings and occupied a landmark plaza in this rattled capital, the Ukrainian Parliament on Tuesday defeated a measure calling for the resignation of Prime Minister Mykola Azarov and his government. The failure of the no-confidence vote pushed the battle for the future of Ukraine back onto the streets, where demonstrators and allied political opposition leaders say they would not relent until they succeeded in removing the government, including President Viktor F. Yanukovich…

Senior Hezbollah leader killed in Beirut(Al Jazeera) A senior commander of Shiite Lebanese armed group Hezbollah was killed outside his house in Beirut late Tuesday night. An Israeli official denied Hezbollah’s accusations of being behind the assasination. Lebanese security officials told the Associated Press that assailants opened fire on Hassan al Laqis with an assault rifle while he was in his car, parked at the residential building where he lived, some two miles southwest of the capital…

Mother Mary Home for Girls lies in the remote and beautiful valley of Wayanad, nestled between hills covered in dense tropical vegetation. To Arya, Athira and the other girls, all of whom were born to poor, broken families, the orphanage must have first appeared as an oasis. Coconut and fruit trees abound. Milk cows and chickens wander the home’s four acres, donated by a local parish of the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church.

Mother Mary Home opened its doors on 30 May 2004, initially welcoming just seven girls, including Arya and Athira. It has since grown rapidly. Three Missionary Sisters of Mary Immaculate, a religious community of the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church, run the home. Founded in 1962 by Father C.J. Varkey to share “the redeeming love of Jesus irrespective of caste, race and religion,” the community includes more than 700 professed sisters in more than a 100 communities throughout India, Italy, Germany and the United States.

The sisters administer not only orphanages and schools, but run and staff health care facilities, homes for the elderly, a rehabilitation center for people with Hansen’s disease (leprosy) and function in a number of pastoral and social apostolates, including family counseling and prison ministry. …

In most cases, said assistant director Sister Jean Mary Koottuemkal, the girls are from the most dysfunctional of families, families with a history of domestic abuse, murders and suicides. She recalled one situation where two sisters saved their mother from being murdered by the father. Both parents are unstable and unable to rear their children. Some girls, she continued, cannot return to their village. In one such case, a girl was born out of wedlock. Another girl’s mother committed suicide. In India — especially its traditional south — many ostracize families with circumstances such as these.

Sister Jean Mary emphasized that Kerala, while largely rural, is densely populated, as much as three times the rest of India. And up to a third of the state’s population live below the poverty level.

Most of the parents of the girls at Mother Mary Home work as day laborers at local quarries, brick factories or large rubber estates. Wages are abysmally low, the work, seasonal and hunger, common. Parents often find it necessary, Sister Jean Mary said, to send their children out to work to supplement their meager incomes. The parents of these girls are so socially and economically marginalized that they never bothered to obtain birth certificates for their children.

A Greek Orthodox nun in Maaloula’s Monastery of St. Tekla prays beside an icon of the site’s patron saint. It was recently reported that an Islamist group has taken 12 sisters from this monastery hostage. As you keep them in your prayers, click here to read more about this imperiled religious community. (photo: Armineh Johannes)

Patriarch Gregory III prays for the ‘true martyrs in Maaloula’(Fides) “We are determined to remain in this blessed land even at the cost of martyrdom and martyrdom of blood. This has already happened to some of our faithful, such as the three men from Maaloula,” said Melkite Greek Catholic Patriarch Gregory III, referring to those killed in recent sectarian violence. “They are true martyrs killed for refusing to renounce their faith.” The patriarch expressed strong concern regarding the new invasion of the Christian village of Maalula by armed Islamist groups, who terrorized the population and took hostage 12 Orthodox nuns in the Monastery of St. Tekla…

Syrian aircraft kill 50 in northern rebel town(Washington Post) Syrian government helicopters dropped barrels full of explosives on a rebel-held town near the northern city of Aleppo, killing at least 50 people in two separate attacks over the weekend, activists said Sunday. The shelling Sunday hit near a bakery in the town of Al Bab, located east of Aleppo, killing at least 24 people, said Rami Abdurrahman of the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and Akram al Halabi, a rebel spokesman based in nearby in Aleppo…

Survey: Corruption worsens in world’s conflict areas(Los Angeles Times) Some of the world’s most tumultuous countries suffered setbacks this year in the fight against corruption, with civil war-torn Syria among the pack of nations increasingly at the mercy of bribe-takers and influence-peddlers, Transparency International reported Tuesday in its annual corruption survey. The assessments of public-sector corruption for each country are based on review of independent experts from 112 institutions, Transparency International explained in its report on methodology…

Caritas to launch global wave of prayer to end hunger(Caritas) The Caritas confederation will launch a global “wave of prayer” to promote an end to world hunger on 10 December, to mark the beginning of a new anti-hunger campaign. Cardinal Oscar Rodríguez Maradiaga, president of Caritas Internationalis, says the problem is not one of production. “There is enough food to feed the planet," he says, adding that with enough support, it could be possible to end hunger as soon as 2025. Pope Francis also offers his blessing and support to the campaign in a five-minute video message to be released on the day of the launch…

Egypt constitution amendments enshrine military power(Al Jazeera) Extensive amendments to the constitution adopted under Egypt’s ousted president give the military more privileges, enshrining its place as the nation’s most powerful institution and source of real power while removing parts that liberals feared set the stage for the creation of an Islamic state. One key clause states that for the next two presidential terms the armed forces will enjoy the exclusive right of naming the defense minister, an arrangement that gives the military autonomy above any civilian oversight and leaves the power of the president uncertain. The charter does not say how the post will be filled following that eight-year transitional period…

On Saturday, Pope Francis sent a message to Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew to mark the feast of the Patron of the Church at Constantinople, St. Andrew the Apostle. As part of the message, Pope Francis underscored the difficulties many Christians are facing in the Middle East:

Our joy in celebrating the feast of the Apostle Andrew must not make us turn our gaze from the dramatic situation of the many people who are suffering due to violence and war, hunger, poverty and grave natural disasters. I am aware that you are deeply concerned for the situation of Christians in the Middle East and for their right to remain in their homelands. Dialogue, pardon and reconciliation are the only possible means to achieve the resolution of conflict. Let us be unceasing in our prayer to the all-powerful and merciful God for peace in this region, and let us continue to work for reconciliation and the just recognition of peoples’ rights.

Your Holiness, the memory of the martyrdom of the apostle Saint Andrew also makes us think of the many Christians of all the churches and ecclesial communities who in many parts of the world experience discrimination and at times pay with their own blood the price of their profession of faith. We are presently marking the 1700th anniversary of Constantine’s Edict, which put an end to religious persecution in the Roman Empire in both East and West, and opened new channels for the dissemination of the Gospel. Today, as then, Christians of East and West must give common witness so that, strengthened by the spirit of the risen Christ, they may disseminate the message of salvation to the entire world. There is likewise an urgent need for effective and committed cooperation among Christians in order to safeguard everywhere the right to express publicly one’s faith and to be treated fairly when promoting the contribution which Christianity continues to offer to contemporary society and culture.

In this late-October photo, a Palestinian migrant from Syria whose daughter drowned throws flowers into the sea during a commemorative service at Valletta’s Grand Harbor in Malta. (photo: CNS/Darrin Zammit Lupi, Reuters)

Out of Syria, into a European maze(New York Times) The Syrian exodus has become one of the gravest global refugee crises of recent decades. More than two million people have fled Syria’s civil war, most resettling in neighboring Jordan, Turkey and Lebanon. But since this summer, refugees have also started pouring into Europe in what became for many weeks a humanitarian crisis in the Mediterranean. Over five months, Italy’s Coast Guard rescued thousands of Syrians, even as hundreds of other migrants, including many Syrians, died in two major shipwrecks in October. For many, reaching Europe was merely the beginning of another difficult journey. Having risked their lives in hopes of settling in prospering Northern Europe, many Syrians found themselves trapped in the south, living illegally in Italy, hiding from the police, as they tried to sneak past border guards and travel north to apply for asylum…

Pope Francis welcomes Melkite Greek Catholic pilgrims(Vatican Radio) On Saturday, Pope Francis received a group of Melkite Greek Catholics visiting Rome on a pilgrimage. The pope told the pilgrims that his thoughts are with the suffering in Syria, and that his prayers are with those who have lost their lives and their loved ones. “We firmly believe in the strength of prayer and reconciliation”, he said, “and we renew our heartfelt appeal to those responsible” to bring an end to the violence. “Through dialogue let them find just and lasting solutions to a conflict that has already wrought too much destruction…”

Netanyahu holds first meeting with Pope Francis(Jerusalem Post) Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with Pope Francis in a 25-minute closed-door meeting Monday, with a host of political and religious issues on the agenda as well as a formal invitation for the pontiff to visit the Holy Land next year. It was the first time the two leaders met face to face, and they discussed the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, Iran’s nuclear program, the Syrian civil war, the welfare of Christians in Israel, as well as the pope’s expected visit to Israel…

West Bank violence jumps, but this time it’s more personal(Washington Post) A retired Israeli military officer was beaten to death with a pickax in his front yard. A Palestinian man was fatally shot after ramming his tractor into an Israeli army gate. These and other enigmatic, seemingly unrelated killings, all originating in the West Bank, have left four Israelis and at least 24 Palestinians dead this year — a notable increase from last year. The jump in violence follows the relative calm of 2012, which was one of the least-deadly years in decades for Israelis. It comes as stalled peace talks give rise to concerns about more killings to come…

20 arrested in Minya after deadly violence(Daily News Egypt) Security forces have arrested 20 people in the governorate of Minya after deadly violence in several villages left five people dead and dozens injured. The Security Directorate of Minya announced arrests in two neighboring villages, the predominantly Coptic Nazlet Ebeid and the predominantly Muslim Al Hawarta. A feud over a piece of land between residents turned violent last week and left four people dead…

Patriarch Kirill concerned about exodus of Christians from Iraq(Voice of Russia) Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill expressed his concern for the Christian population of Iraq during a meeting with the Iraqi ambassador to Russia. “We are deeply convinced that Iraq should remain a unified state, civil accord should be restored and there should be no outside influence,” he said…

Ukrainian protesters find refuge from police in Kiev monastery(Reuters) Around 100 Ukrainian pro-European Union protesters took refuge from police batons and biting cold on Saturday inside the walls of a central Kiev monastery. With a barricade of benches pushed up against a gate to keep police out, protesters — who had rallied against President Viktor Yanukovich’s decision to reject a pact with the European Union — checked their wounds in the pre-dawn light. “They gave us tea to warm us up, told us to keep our spirits strong and told us not to fight evil with evil,” said Roman Tsado, 25, a native of Kiev, who said police beat him on his legs as they cleared the pro-E.U. rally. “I don’t go to church much, only to escape from the powers of evil,” said Tsado, laughing. According to RISU, Ukrainian church leaders — including Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church and Patriarch Filaret of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church’s Kievan Patriarchate — have condemned the brutal police response to protesters…

Cardinal Gracias celebrates the start of Advent among Dharavi’s poor(AsiaNews) Together with Caritas India, Cardinal Oswald Gracias, archbishop of Mumbai, has launched a Christmas campaign to raise awareness of the city’s poor. The initiative was launched with a visit to the largest slum in India and Asia, home to hundreds of thousands of inhabitants. The cardinal recalled Pope Francis, who “praised the courage of the poor, urging society to welcome them with love and compassion…”